♪Sea Shanties♫
A page dedicated to sea shanties! I am so glad they are becoming popular currently, but I have to say that I did like shanties before they were cool. ;) I'm listing ones here that I think will be most likely to have a wider appeal. If you find you like what you hear you can always look up sea shanties on youtube or spotify and such and dive further into it and hear some of the ones that are older or rougher and may have a more authentic feel to them.
Honestly there's music here that doesn't always qualify as shanties but shanties is the most fun to say. All soulful maritime music is good to me!
"The Wellerman" shanty
Warning! This ear worm will get stuck in your head!
The shanty most people probably already know, after it went viral on TikTok and other social media. This is the one that's bringing sea shanties into the public eye and it is well deserved. Nathan Evans did a great job as well as all the people who joined in! I'll list some of my favorite versions here, just know they're all the same song so if you get tired of the same thing in different ways just pick one.
- Nathan Evans "Family Tree" version A video that starts with the original by Nathan Evans that kicked the craze off, and then showcases many of the additions people made to it. This is a beautiful display of the internet allowing people to collaborate and make something beautiful. It shows how the relatively basic and repetitive but rhythmic format of shanties lends itself so well to uniting people, which was the purpose of old sea shanties on ship crews.
- Nathan Evans Official Nathan Evans made an official version that is more polished. He actually got a recording contracted from all of this in addition to his worldwide fame!
- The Wellermen version This is a version without Nathan Evans, but the four arguably most popular addition singers from the original craze and new lead Sam Pope whose expressive performance is really entertaining. If you buy a copy, proceeds will be donated to the Marine Conservation Society which is really cool.
- Caleb Hyles Collaboration This version is a collaboration that sounds more like something you would hear in the mainstream, maybe the opening of a TV show or promotional material for a movie. I like it a lot, but it does lack that more raw sound that is essential to an authentic sea shanty in my opinion. As a remix I think it is an amazing piece of work though and I listen to it all the time.
- ARGULES Bump House remix This one is really popular, it takes the most pouplar original Evans collaboration and makes it... "Bump House" I guess, whatever that is. It's a great listen and gets you pumped!
- DHeusta Synthwave remix I have to admit, all these remixes are introducing me to a lot of new music genres. This one is called Synthwave, and is a fun listen as well. It's a remix of the Nathan Evans Official version.
There are a lot more out there, but the ones above are my personal favorites. Do you have a preferred version? Send me a link at my email on the contact page!
Fun facts: When the original TikTok version was taking off, some interesting people who joined in included famous composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and even Kermit the Frog! This sea shanty really has taken off and has reminded me why I love the internet so much.
The Longest Johns
The Longest Johns are an amazing modern folk band that do a lot of sea shanties. You can't go wrong with these guys and their videos are really entertaining.
The Dreadnoughts
The Dreadnoughts are an amazing group with lots of shanties and other folk music. All their music is great, my favorite shanty of theirs is Old Maui. I also really love Dear Old Stan which is a touching tribute to legend Stan Rogers and touches on the origin of the Dreadnoughts group. And speaking of Stan...
Stan Rogers
The late Stan Rogers, Canadian folk musician and songwriter. Great voice and authentic sound, well known singer of lots of sea shanties and other maritime music.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag shanties
This game had a surprisingly great selection of sea shanties your crew would sing as you sailed around in your ship. This youtube video includes some of the best. I also love how it includes the sounds of the sea and crew noise in the background. But there's that one guy who keeps saying something like "awalabayo!" over and over...once you hear it you can't stop hearing it every time.